From Chicago Judge, a Plea For Safety and Softer Words

By JOHN FILES

Published: May 19, 2005

A federal judge from Chicago, whose husband and mother were killed in their home in February, rebuked lawmakers on Wednesday as condoning a climate of ''harsh rhetoric'' about the judiciary that she said could incite violence and endanger judges' lives.

The judge, Joan H. Lefkow, said recent attacks on the judiciary by the televangelist Pat Robertson and by some members of Congress fostered disrespect for judges that ''can only encourage those who are on the edge or on the fringe to exact revenge on a judge who displeases them.''

On Feb. 28, Judge Lefkow discovered the bodies of her husband, Michael F. Lefkow, and of her 89-year-old mother, Donna Humphrey, in the basement of their home in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago. They had been killed by an out-of-work electrician whose decade-long legal crusade against doctors, lawyers and the government was dismissed by the judge last year.

The electrician, Bart A. Ross, 57, had sued the federal government, among others, for $1 billion, contending that it had persecuted him with ''Nazi-style'' and terrorist tactics as he pursued a medical malpractice claim. He killed himself in March and left a suicide note in the van where he had been living, confessing to the killings. He wrote, in a separate letter, that he had planned to assassinate Judge Lefkow but ''had no choice but to shoot'' her husband and mother when they discovered him hiding in their basement.

Until the authorities found the body of Mr. Ross and the confessional note, the search had largely concentrated on sympathizers of Matthew Hale, an Aryan leader who was convicted last year of soliciting his security chief to kill Judge Lefkow. Last month, a federal judge in Chicago sentenced Mr. Hale to 40 years in prison for his role in the plot.

Judge Lefkow, who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the need to increase security for court employees, was accompanied by her four daughters, her husband's two sisters and a niece. She called on the panel to ''publicly and persistently repudiate gratuitous attacks on the judiciary.''

''We need your help in tempering the tone on the debates that concern the independence of the judiciary,'' Judge Lefkow said. ''I have come to know scores of judges during my 22 years as a magistrate judge, bankruptcy judge and district judge. Whether a liberal or conservative, I have never encountered a judge in the federal judiciary who can remotely be described as posing a threat as Mr. Robertson said, 'probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings.'''

Mr. Robertson had criticized the federal courts during a recent appearance on the ABC program ''This Week,'' saying, ''They're destroying the fabric that holds our nation together.'' He continued: ''Over 100 years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that's held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings.''

Without citing lawmakers by name, Judge Lefkow also referred in her testimony to the heated political battle that erupted this year related to Terri Schiavo, a severely brain-damaged Florida woman who died after her feeding tube was removed at her husband's request. Some conservatives portrayed her death as the result of an unaccountable judiciary, and Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the House majority leader, threatened retribution against the judges who refused to intercede in the case.

''The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior,'' Mr. DeLay said at the time.

Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, also said last month that some courthouse violence might be explained -- without justification -- by anger about judges who ''are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public.''

Judge Lefkow said she had received more than 1,000 letters of condolence since her husband and mother were killed, including about 200 from other judges who ''know in their own hearts that 'this could have been me.''' She has been under federal protection since the killings.

Indeed, federal marshals were on duty at a Chicago restaurant where Judge Lefkow was eating on Friday night when someone taped a profane, derogatory note to the window. The note did not specifically name Judge Lefkow, but the authorities said it was probably intended for her.

Judge Lefkow urged Congress to appropriate more money for the United States Marshals Service, which protects more than 2,200 judges in the federal court system, and to pass legislation that would prohibit the posting of personal information about judges and other government officials on the Internet without their written consent. (Judge Lefkow said her home address had been posted on the Internet by associates of Mr. Hale.)

There has been a rash of violence at courthouses this year, including a high-profile deadly shooting at one in Tyler, Tex., and the killing of a judge, a court reporter and a sheriff's deputy at one in Atlanta.

Photo: Judge Joan H. Lefkow, whose husband and mother were killed by a plaintiff, asked the Senate to increase security for court employees. (Photo by Doug Mills/The New York Times)